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Rethinking strength of Iron Range towns
The small working class towns of Minnesota’s iron ranges were founded for a profoundly simple purpose. Each village cut into the thick forests of Northern Minnesota to provide housing and supplies within walking distance of an iron mine. Few towns grew beyond that purpose. Dozens were were abandoned after a decade or two. As the…
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We are not monsters
The world keeps turning on the Mesabi Iron Range. Lawmakers defend the IRRRB in St. Paul, while the local paper lambasts a city council for a foreign steel pipe found in a construction project. At risk, we are told, is “our way of life.” Controversies come and go. Another election year bulges on the horizon. Two…
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Remer, MN: ‘Home of Bigfoot’
I have a nagging question about Sasquatch. If this giant ape-man of the northern boreal forests is real, where is he in the oral tradition of native peoples? Wouldn’t Sasquatch be all over those stories? It stands to reason that Sasquatch creatures would have been more plentiful and less inhibited in the days before industrialization, right?…
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Ticks, ethics & bioeconomics on the Range
What do ticks, digital ethics and “the bioeconomy” have in common? The short answer is that dogs have no use for studying these things, but the University of Minnesota does. The University of Minnesota is sending some of its researchers around the state for its “Minnesota Sparks” tour. The idea is to encourage broader conversations about interesting…
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Hibtac expansion to displace mine view
Hibbing Taconite is running out of room to mine, so it needs to expand or close. It’s penned in by highways and the Iron Range cities of Hibbing and Chisholm, however, which means something would have to give for this 40-year-old mine to continue. The Hibbing Daily Tribune reported Sunday that the mine has stated its initial plans. In…
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Dylan Fest 2016 coming to Duluth, Hibbing
Fun Fact: The IRRRB, the Blandin Foundation, M&Ms and Bob Dylan all turn 75 this year. This is the kind of information that passes through my mind on a lovely May day in Northern Minnesota. It’s been a few years since we closed up shop at Dylan Days in Hibbing. I’ve now totally expunged from…
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Future of the Range is ‘Mucho Si’
I’ll be honest. I chuckled when I heard that a vacant restaurant property on Central Avenue in downtown Nashwauk was going to become a Mexican joint called “Mucho Si.” For one thing, the site has been several restaurants over the years, each succumbing to economic doom. My cousin ran one of them. I knew the guy who…
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Iron Range original music party tonight
Tonight at 7 the WDSE program “The Playlist” hosts a “Celebrate Iron Range Original Music” live street dance in Virginia, Minnesota. Part of the festivities will be used for Thursday night’s 9 p.m. broadcast of “The Playlist” on WDSE-TV/PBS North. But tonight will also be a sprawling mass of Iron Range live music for your…
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Daniel Berrigan, radical priest & Range native
On Saturday, April 30, peace activist and Jesuit Catholic priest Daniel Berrigan died at the age of 94. Berrigan was probably best known for his high profile protests of the Vietnam War, including multiple arrests for anti-war demonstrations. Most notably, Berrigan and fellow protesters seized draft records from an office in Maryland and burned them…
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Mt. Iron-Buhl OKs $29 million school
UPDATE: On Tuesday, May 3, Mountain Iron-Buhl voters approved the bond referendum, paving the way for the new school proposal to move forward. The original piece, published May 2 follows: Voters in the Mountain Iron-Buhl school district will decide Tuesday on whether to accept a $29 million plan to build a new high school on Highway 169.…
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Northshore Mining back to work early
Northshore Mining has called back workers early to reopen production of taconite at its Babbitt Mine and Silver Bay processing facility. The mine had previously announced it would reopen in mid- to late-May, but is ahead of schedule. WDIO reported on the news when U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) made the announcement after a tour of…
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Range Shrine Circus in Hibbing this weekend
The Range Shrine Circus opens today at the Hibbing Memorial Building arena, the biennial event at the heart of building up the tolerance of young ears to random loud noises. The Shrine Circus has always alternated between Duluth and Hibbing each year, since 1953. Jim Fisher wrote about some circus memories and speculates on its…
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All local Duluth sitcom ‘Old Lifty’ to premiere
Some say we’re in the golden age of television, a time when the breakdown of the big networks’ monopoly on production creates new opportunities for smaller, independent artists with good ideas. That’s certainly the white-capped Lake Superior wave that producers of a new web series based in Duluth hope to catch. “Old Lifty” is based on a…
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MPR: Abuse cover-up at Buhl juvenile center
For residents of the Iron Range, the KidsPeace Mesabi Academy in Buhl is just a part of the tapestry of the region’s economic metamorphosis. Once the beloved neighborhood Buhl school, the building was “saved” by becoming a juvenile correction center for boys. This week, American Public Media Reports — a organizational relative of Minnesota Public…
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On Letters of Hope
“Plant a nut, get a nut,” someone once told me about my son Doug’s antics. Approaching 9 years old, he has somehow outpaced my childhood obsession with historical trivia and the macabre. Last year, he wandered down to my home office and extracted a ten-pound American history textbook left over from my college days. “Can…